http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20120219/NEWS01/202190303/First-Native-American-saint-canonized-Oct-21?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage

First Native American saint to be canonized Oct. 21

Feb. 18, 2012  

Deacon Ron Boyer looks at the tomb of Kateri Tekakwitha at St. Francis Xavier Church, in Kahnawake, Quebec, Canada. AP FILE PHOTO

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI has set Oct. 21 as the date to make two U.S. saints: Kateri Tekakwitha, a Mohawk Indian who spent most of her life in what is now upstate New York, and Mother Marianne Cope, who began religious life in the same area but moved to Hawaii to care for leprosy patients.

Benedict had already approved miracles attributed to the two, the final step toward sainthood.

Blessed Kateri will the first Native American person to be canonized in the Roman Catholic Church. Sister Kateri Mitchell of Great Falls, who is executive director of the national Tekakwitha Conference, was involved with the miracle in which Jacob Finkbonner was cured when he was near death at Seattle Children's Hospital in 2006.

Sister Mitchell visited Jacob and his family in the hospital when he was suffering from a life-threatening infection. She brought with her a relic belonging to Tekakwitha and prayed, along with the Rev. Tim Sauer of Seattle, for Blessed Kateri to intervene and heal Jacob.